^ abNote that scorecards created in the first quarter of the 19th century are not necessarily accurate or complete; therefore any summary of runs, wickets or catches can only represent the known totals and computation of averages is ineffectual.

1.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick

2.
Marylebone Cricket Club
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Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lords in St Johns Wood, MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide. In 1993 many of its functions were transferred to the International Cricket Council and its English governance passed to the Test. MCC revised the Laws of Cricket in 1788 and continues to reissue them, since its foundation, the club has raised its own teams which are essentially occasional and have never taken part in any formal competition. Depending on the quality of the opposition in any match, MCC teams have held important match status from 1787 to 1894. MCC has never played in a List A match, MCC teams play many matches against minor opposition and, on these occasions, they relinquish their first-class status. Traditionally, to mark the beginning of each English season in April, MCC plays the reigning County Champions at Lords, the exact date of MCCs foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. Many of its members became dissatisfied with the surroundings and complained that the site was too public. They asked Thomas Lord, a bowler at the White Conduit, to secure a more private venue within easy distance of London. When Lord opened his new ground in May 1787, the White Conduit moved there, there was a match at Lords starting on 30 July 1787 titled Marylebone Cricket Club v White Conduit Club. The England touring team wore the red and yellow stripes of the Marylebone Cricket Club as their colours for the last time on the tour to New Zealand in 1996/97. The true provenance of MCCs colours is unknown, but its players often turned out sporting Sky Blue, until well into the 19th century. Another theory, which chimes with the origins, is that MCC borrowed its colours from the livery colours of a founding patron, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Although MCC remains the framer and copyright holder of the Laws of Cricket, in recent times the ICC has begun instituting changes to match regulations without much consultation with MCC. Also, in moving its location from Lords to Dubai, the ICC gave a signal of breaking with the past and from MCC, changes to the laws of cricket are still made by the MCC. Any changes to these require a resolution of the MCC committee. MCC has long had an involvement in coaching the game of cricket. As of 2013 the clubs head coach Mark Alleyne heads an operation involving the running of an indoor-cricket school

3.
Roundarm bowling
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In cricket, roundarm bowling is a bowling style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler has their arm extended about 90 degrees from their body at the point where they release the ball. Roundarm fell into decline after 1864 when the current style of bowling was legalised. The spread of roundarm in the 1820s was a reaction to the growing predominance of batsmen over the age-old underarm style of bowling. Its adherents argued that the legalisation of roundarm was essential to restore the balance between batting and bowling, however, high-scoring matches were still comparatively rare owing to vagaries in pitch conditions. The idea of roundarm is sometimes attributed to Christiana Willes, sister of Kent cricketer John Willes, elevating the arm to just above waist height, she bowled without interference from her attire. Roundarm was said to have devised in the 1790s by Tom Walker. Walker was an opening batsman who had a solid defensive technique and was notoriously difficult to dismiss. He was also a more than useful bowler who was looking for ways to improvise. Legend has it that he and some of his players in the Hambledon Era used to practise in a barn during the winters. Walker worked out that he could generate more bounce and variation of pace if he bowled with his arm away from his body and soon realised that these deliveries gave the batsman added problems. He tried to use the style in important matches but was no-balled and had to return to his usual underarm lobs and he tried, without success, to have it accepted in senior cricket. On 15 July 1822, in the MCC v Kent match at Lords and he had been trying at various times to introduce the style since 1807. Being no-balled on this occasion was the straw, for Willes reportedly threw the ball away and withdrew from the match, literally going straight to his horse. He refused to again in any important fixture. Although Willes had quit the game, he had made his point and others were willing to pick his ball up, in 1826, Sussex had the best team in England and were acclaimed as the Champion County in some quarters. Their success owed much to the prowess of two top-class bowlers William Lillywhite and Jem Broadbridge, both of whom were champions of the style, when they could get away with it. Lillywhite was one of the great bowlers and was nicknamed the Nonpareil

4.
Napoleonic War
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The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which had raged on for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Napoleon became the First Consul of France in 1799, then Emperor five years later, inheriting the political and military struggles of the Revolution, he created a state with stable finances, a strong central bureaucracy, and a well-trained army. The British frequently financed the European coalitions intended to thwart French ambitions, by 1805, they had managed to convince the Austrians and the Russians to wage another war against France. At sea, the Royal Navy destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in October 1805, Prussian worries about increasing French power led to the formation of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July, although Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, it did not bring a lasting peace for Europe. Hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia, the Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, the Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. Unwilling to bear the consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse and retreat of the Grand Army along with the destruction of Russian lands. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France, a lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814 and he was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power. However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again, the Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The Congress of Vienna, which started in 1814 and concluded in 1815, established the new borders of Europe and laid out the terms, Napoleon seized power in 1799, creating a de facto military dictatorship. The Napoleonic Wars began with the War of the Third Coalition, Kagan argues that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleons assertion of control over Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, for its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. The British quickly enforced a blockade of France to starve it of resources. Napoleon responded with economic embargoes against Britain, and sought to eliminate Britains Continental allies to break the coalitions arrayed against him, the so-called Continental System formed a league of armed neutrality to disrupt the blockade and enforce free trade with France

5.
Lord's Old Ground
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Lords Old Ground was a cricket venue in London that was established by Thomas Lord in 1787. It was used mainly by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1810, the first match known to have been played at Lords Old Ground was White Conduit Club v Middlesex on Monday 21 May 1787. The first regular cricket fixture at Lords was the annual Eton v Harrow match which was first played on the Old Ground in 1805, the inaugural Gentlemen v Players match took place at the Old Ground in July 1806. Lords Old Ground was on the site of what is now Dorset Square, in 1814, he opened the present Lords Cricket Ground, formerly a duckpond in St Johns Wood. A commemorative plaque was unveiled in Dorset Square by Andrew Strauss on 9 May 2006, Lords From Lads to Lords –1787 Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825 CricInfos page on the original Lords

6.
Non-international England cricket teams
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The key factor is that they were non-international and there is a significant difference between them and the official England cricket team which takes part in international fixtures. Conceptually, there is evidence of this sort of team being formed, or at least mooted and they have always been occasional elevens but, nevertheless, have invariably been strong sides. A typical example would be a selection consisting of leading players drawn from several county teams, the challenge excluded members of Croydon Cricket Club, with whom London were in dispute. It is possible that challenges of this sort had been issued previously, in the 1730s, any eleven men in England would in practice have come from the southeastern counties only, e. g. Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex. The majority of teams were simply labelled England and sometimes the term all-England was used loosely in a generic sense but, strictly speaking. The all England term per se was first used in reports of two Kent v England matches in 1739. The first was at Bromley Common on Monday,9 July, Kent, described as the unconquerable county, won by a very few notches. The second match was at the Artillery Ground in Bunhill Fields and this game was drawn and a report includes the phrase eleven picked out of all England. Top-level cricket at that time, however, was limited to the southeastern counties, before these matches, there were instances of teams representing a number of counties. On Thursday,28 August 1729, a match between Edwin Steads XI and Sir William Gages XI was held at Penshurst Park, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, the match had the alternative title of Kent v Surrey, Sussex & Hampshire. It was 11-a-side and played for 100 guineas with some thousands watching and it seems to have been the first known innings victory as Gage got in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men threw it up. A contemporary report states that turned the scale of victory, which for years past has been generally on the Kentish side. Given a 1728 reference to the superiority of Kent in the 1720s, after 1739, England became a generic term used to denote numerous teams over the next two hundred years. They invariably have important match status, depending on the quality and/or status of their opponents, sometimes, the all-England teams were given names like The Rest, which more accurately describes them vis-à-vis their opponents. CricketArchive lists 29 matches involving teams called England or The Rest between 1739 and 1778 and these are all important matches but only one, England v Kent in 1744, has a scorecard. The earliest important match that has been designated first-class by CA was between a Hampshire county team and one called England on Broadhalfpenny Down at Hambledon in Hampshire on 24 June 1772. CAs list of England XI matches begins five years before Test cricket started and he kept the surplus for himself. The AEE continued for years to showcase the best players of the day

7.
John Major
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Sir John Major, KG, CH, PC is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. A cabinet minister from 1987, he served Margaret Thatcher in the Treasury, Major was Member of Parliament for Huntingdon from 1979 to 2001. He is currently the oldest living former Prime Minister, following the death of Thatcher on 8 April 2013, at the beginning of his premiership, Major presided over British participation in the Gulf War in March 1991 and negotiated the Maastricht Treaty in December 1991. Shortly after this, even though a supporter of the ERM. This event led to a loss of confidence in Conservative economic policies, Major went on to lose the 1997 general election months later, in one of the largest electoral defeats since the Great Reform Act of 1832. After defeat, Major resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded as Leader of the Conservative Party by William Hague and he went on to retire from active politics, leaving the House of Commons at the 2001 general election. Major was born in 1943 at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, Surrey and he was christened John Roy Major but only John was recorded on his birth certificate. He used his name until the early 1980s. He attended primary school at Cheam Common and from 1954 he attended Rutlish School, in 1955, with his fathers garden ornaments business in decline, the family moved to Brixton. He also credited a chance meeting with former Prime Minister Clement Attlee on the Kings Road shortly afterwards, Major left school at the age of 16 in 1959 with three O-levels in History, English Language and English Literature. He later gained three more O-levels by correspondence course, in the British Constitution, Mathematics and Economics, Majors first job was as a clerk in the insurance brokerage firm Pratt & Sons in 1959. Major joined the Young Conservatives in Brixton at this time, Major was almost 19 years old when his father died at the age of 82 on 27 March 1962. His mother died eight and a years later in September 1970 at the age of 65. After Major became Prime Minister it was misreported that his failure to get a job as a bus conductor resulted from his failing to pass a maths test and he had in fact passed all of the necessary tests but had been passed over owing to his height. After a period of unemployment, Major started working at the London Electricity Board in 1963 which is incidentally his successor as Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He later decided to undertake a course in banking. Major took up a post as an executive at the Standard Chartered Bank in May 1965 and he was sent to work in Jos, Nigeria, by the bank in 1967 and he nearly died in a car accident there. Major was interested in politics from an early age, encouraged by fellow Conservative Derek Stone, he started giving speeches on a soap-box in Brixton Market

8.
Sheffield Cricket Club
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The Sheffield Cricket Club was founded in the 18th century and soon became important to the development of cricket in northern England. It was the forerunner of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and some of the teams fielded by Sheffield were styled Yorkshire. Sheffield generally held important match status, depending on the quality of their opponents, the earliest known references to cricket in Yorkshire are in 1751. These relate to local matches in Sheffield and to a game on or soon after Monday,5 August at Stanwick, near Richmond, between the Duke of Cleveland’s XI and Earl of Northumberland’s XI. It is believed that Sheffield Cricket Club was founded soon after that date and it began to play matches against teams from northern towns. Sheffield quickly became the centre for cricket in Yorkshire. In September 1757, a match took place between Wirksworth and Sheffield at Brampton Moor, near Chesterfield and this is the earliest reference to cricket in Derbyshire. Mr White does not give the source from which he himself derived the information. On Tuesday,7 July 1761, the Leeds Intelligencer announced a game to be played at Chapeltown the following Thursday, on Thursday,5 September 1765, the London Chronicle reported a great match on Monday,26 August, Leeds v Sheffield at Chapeltown Moor, near Leeds. As this game was highly rated and was reported by a London newspaper, in August 1771, the first of many matches between Sheffield and Nottingham was held. This one took place on the Forest Racecourse at Nottingham and is the earliest known reference to cricket in Nottinghamshire and this match may tentatively be regarded as the beginning of county-level cricket in the north of England. The Sheffield club was representative of its county in a fashion to Nottingham. In 1772, the Daily Messenger carried reports of a match in Sheffield on Monday,1 June, the Sheffield club continued to play occasional important matches, mainly against other northern clubs. In September 1833 occurred the first use of Yorkshire as the name instead of Sheffield. This was in the Yorkshire v Norfolk match at Hyde Park, the great Fuller Pilch was still playing for Norfolk. Yorkshire was by now finding star players of its own, especially the fast bowling all-rounder Tom Marsden. Although the Sheffield and Manchester clubs had met previously, there was a significant development on 23,24 &25 July 1849 when the match was called Yorkshire versus Lancashire at Hyde Park. This was the first match to involve a Lancashire county team and also, therefore, in the winter of 1854, the club agreed to build a new ground on land near to Bramall Lane which they were to lease from the Duke of Norfolk for ninety-nine years

9.
Caterham Cricket Club
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Caterham Cricket Club was based at Caterham, Surrey. Caterham at this time was representative of Surrey as a county. Its home venue was on Caterham Common, the club was patronised by Henry Rowett, a prominent landowner in the area, and was in reality his own private club. Caterham is first recorded as a team on Monday 21 September 1767 when it played Hambledon at Duppas Hill. The clubs last match in 1770 was also against Hambledon, Caterham continues to be a popular and successful club, under the benign chairmanship of Graham Samuels. Stuart Congdon last season became the leading run scorer of all time for Caterham CC, the diminutive shot maker has dominated the clubs run scoring for over two decades. A graduate of the De Stafford Cricket Academy alongside alumni such as C. H. Samuels, I. Thompson, P. Anderson, R. Chapman and G. A. Barber, Congdon has stood out as an aggressive and his achievements are unlikely to be surpassed. Chris Bullen is the only current Caterham player with and international experience, clubman of 2009 Bullo has been an outstanding servant of the club since joining from the rarified levels of the Surrey Championship and the Brit Oval. Bullens playing achievements have been immense, but as importantly his contributions off the field have been legion, Caterham Cricket Club site G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell,1935 H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press,1906

10.
Chertsey Cricket Club
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Chertsey Cricket Club in Surrey is one of the oldest in England. Its own website dates its founding as 1737 but in fact matches involving a Chertsey team date from 1736, there are two known games that were played before July that season. One is Croydon v Chertsey at Duppas Hill in Croydon, the other is Chertsey v Croydon at the Laleham Burway ground in Chertsey. Knowledge of the games was gathered through an announcement in Read’s Weekly Journal dated Saturday 3 July about a game on Richmond Green to be played on Monday 5 July. In each of the two matches, the team won by a great number of runs. The match at Laleham Burway is the first important one known to have played at this famous venue in Chertsey. The club played a number of big matches against London and Dartford, in the 1760s, they played matches against the sports rising power, the Hambledon Club, and in September 1778, Chertsey beat the rest of England by an innings and 24 runs. However, the team, on arrival at Dover, met the Ambassador returning from France at the outset of the French Revolution, Chertsey produced several famous players in the 18th century including the great bowler Edward Lumpy Stevens and the noted wicket-keeper William Yalden. At the Sign of the Wicket, Cricket 1742–1751, fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. From Commons to Lords, Volume One,1700 to 1750, classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825. Archived from the original on June 29,2011, from Lads to Lords – Chertsey. Archived from the original on June 29,2011